By Matthias Inverardi, Tom Sims and Amir Orusov
(Reuters) – DHL unveiled plans on Thursday to cut about 8,000 jobs in Germany this year as part of a strategy to save more than 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) by 2027, after the logistics group reported a 7% fall in annual operating profit.
The job cuts, representing more than 1% of the total workforce, will occur in the Post & Parcel (P&P) Germany division through attrition, rather than compulsory redundancies, DHL CEO Tobias Meyer told Reuters in an interview.
Logistics firms are likely to see slower profit growth this year due to a normalisation of yields, softer demand and easing supply-chain disruptions, Parash Jain, HSBC’s global head of transport and logistics research, said ahead of the results.
Jain expects logistics firms to cut costs, with growth in global container trade and air freight tonnes expected to halve in 2025.
DHL shares have underperformed the wider logistic sector over the past year, falling nearly 11% by Tuesday.
Meyer said there are no plans to separate the P&P business, although it has struggled for years with cost inflation and declining letter volumes.
The new stamp price guidelines approved by Germany’s network regulator are insufficient to address these issues, according to Meyer.
Meyer cited the recent wage agreement with the Verdi labour union, which includes a 5% wage increase and more holidays, as a reason for the job cuts. The agreement will cost DHL about 360 million euros by the end of 2026, according to Meyer.
DHL logged 5.89 billion euros in 2024 earnings before interest and tax, surpassing analysts’ expectations of 5.81 billion euros in a company-provided consensus.
For 2025, the group expects an operating profit of more than 6 billion euros, which is below analysts’ expectation of 6.29 billion euros. The forecast does not account for potential impacts from changes in tariff or trade policies.
DHL continues its investor return policy by proposing a stable dividend of 1.85 euros per share for 2024 and increasing the share buyback programme launched in 2022 by 2 billion euros to up to 6 billion euros and extending it until 2026.
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi, Tom Sims and Amir Orusov, additional reporting by Anastasiia Kozlova; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
